Vigilance and Tranquility, Honesty and awareness

Listen to yourself

There are two great observation tools we have but we mostly point them toward the outside. Our ears and vibration sense throughout the body will grant us great insight on our emotions, reaction and movement if we just pay attention.

Start as you are still laying down to sleep. Feel your own pulse wherever it is easier to sense and with touch (the body responds with increased awareness where you press yourself with fingers or use muscle tension) extend the awareness to the pulse flow throughout the body.

Continue by closing your mouth if it is open and listen in to the voices of the breath through the nose, mouth, throat and lungs. Open your mouth only slightly and listen again. Keeping the mouth not closed and not open works best for your ears to pick up both inner and outer cues.

Breathe and sense and hear your breath moving your body even when prone. Feel and hear the wave of compression and decompression of the lungs and the rest of the body in turn.

Go inward by moving each joint at a time. Listen in to the sound of your skin moving, the joint and fluids that run through us hopefully and listen also to how the rest of the body align for each movement. We always try to accomodate ourselves and paying attention to it will free more inner space in movement and in thought.

Get up and start walking. Listen to your breath with each contact with the ground and let both contact and breath continue instead of being a clockwork human. Listen to the sound coming from your body and the ground as you make, shift and exit the contact and gain greater awareness in every sense.